spelt with two! Very
clever, but a slight mistake! Observe," he said, showing the place to
Donna Tullia.

"It is a mistake of the copyist," she said, scornfully. "The name is
properly spelt in the other papers. Here is the copy of the marriage
register. Shall I read it also?"

"Spare me the humiliation," said Giovanni, in quiet contempt. "Spare me
the unutterable mortification of discovering that there is another
Giovanni Saracinesca in the world!"

"I could not have believed that any one could be so hardened," said Donna
Tullia. "But whether you are humiliated or not by the evidence of your
misdeeds, I will spare you nothing. Here it is in full, and you may
notice that your name is spelt properly too."

She held up the document and then read it out--the copy of the curate's
register, stating that on the 19th of June 1863 Giovanni Saracinesca and
Felice Baldi were united in holy matrimony in the church of San
Bernardino da Siena. She handed the paper to the Prince, and then read
the extract from the register of the Civil marriage and the notary's
attestation to the signatures. She gave this also to old Saracinesca, and
then folding her arms in a fine attitude, confronted the three.

"Are you satisfied that I spoke the truth?" she asked, defiantly.

"The thing is certainly remarkably well done," answered the old Prince,
who scrutinised the papers with a puzzled air. Though he knew perfectly
well that his son had been in Canada at the time of this pretended
marriage, he confessed to himself that if such evidence had been brought
against any other man, he would have believed it.

"It is a shameful fraud!" exclaimed Corona, looking at the papers over
the old man's shoulder.

"That is a lie!" cried Donna Tullia, growing scarlet with anger.

"Do not forget your manners, or you will get into trouble," said
Giovanni, sternly. "I see through the whole thing. There has been no
fraud, and yet the deductions are entirely untrue. In the first place,
Donna Tullia, how do you make the statements here given to coincide with
the fact that during the whole summer of 1863 and during the early part
of 1864 I was in Canada with a party of gentlemen, who are all alive to
testify to the fact?"

"I do not believe it," answered Madame Mayer, contemptuously. "I would
not believe your friends if they were here and swore to it. You will very
likely produce witnesses to prove that you were in the arctic regions
last summer, as the news